Ceiling-mounted television sets are widely used in hospitals to enable patients to view them while reclining in bed. Supporting structures for mounting television sets from the ceiling of buildings such as hospitals would not be easily adaptable for use in homes and would require special tools and skills beyond those available to ordinary homeowners. A need exists for a simple but safe and reliable ceiling mounting apparatus that may be readily installed by the average homeowner in houses with conventional ceiling structures including ceiling joists such as two-by-fours placed on edge and panels of material such as gypsum board secured to the underside of the joists. In addition to providing necessary support, the apparatus should provide a means for threading wires through the support structure to enable connections to electrical power and signal sources.
Various structures for mounting objects such as fans and lamps from ceilings are disclosed in prior patents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,645,158 shows a ceiling fan mounting apparatus that includes a tubular bar supported at each end by extending over the upper edges of spaced-apart ceiling joists or by being attached to the sides of such joists. The bar in turn supports the fan by means of a hook and an electrical outlet box. A ceiling mounting fluorescent lamp fixture is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,545,307, the fixture including two U-shaped ceiling supports having horizontally disposed legs. Structure for attachment of the supports to the ceiling joists is not shown in this patent. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,748,727 and 1,489,474 disclose arrangements including a U-shaped clip attachable by a bolt for securing corrugated sheets to the purlin of a roof. Devices for threading wires through conduits are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,230,305 and 1,130,775.